Special to The Laker/Lutz News

 

 

By Jeff Odom

 

The new Cancer Institute Adult Outpatient Infusion Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz is offering more than just easily accessible service to cancer patients.

It’s giving them a little piece of home, too.

The center, located at 4211 Van Dyke Road inside the hospital, opened its doors in December. Right away patients noticed a difference with a relaxed setting to provide comfort during treatment procedures.

“It’s amazing,” said Lutz resident Mary Crook, a patient who is undergoing treatment for colon cancer. “I have zero complaints about the whole thing, and as far as the chemo center and what is going on there, it’s perfect for us.”

The hospital has made comfort a priority with high-definition televisions, wireless Internet and plenty of space for guests. The amenities are something Mary, along with her husband Bob, appreciates very much.

“If I had to have this experience anywhere, I would want to have it here,” Mary said. “The people that take care of me are so wonderful, and the whole place is gorgeous. It’s top of the line.”

Patients staying in the center also have access to a snack bar, which offers sandwiches, treats and a variety of hot and cold beverages. Some rooms even accommodate guests spending the night with a pullout bed.

Bob, who is a manager at the Publix Supermarket located at the apex of US 41 in Lutz, said the location is perfect, because he can be to the hospital in as little as 10 minutes to support his wife.

“It’s good to know that I can be there, because that’s right up there in the top of the line in importance,” Bob said. “So far, everything that has gone down I’ve been able to be there with her for it. It’s good for me, because I can keep tabs on everything that’s going on, and it’s good for her because I can be there for the moral support.”

In addition to treatment facilities, the center includes a private education room for oncology nurses to consult with patients and their families, a pharmacy annex so chemotherapy can be stored and mixed on site and an expansive nursing station. There’s even an exit for patients to leave without disturbance.

The cancer institute’s director Brad Smith said in a release that the center is already making itself known as a solution to patients with busy schedules that would otherwise have to travel to the main hospital in Tampa or other cancer treatment centers like Moffitt.

“It can be challenging for cancer patients to maintain their busy treatment schedule, and when you are not feeling well an extra 20 to 30 minutes in the car can make a real difference,” Smith said. “Our cancer patients are very special to us. Knowing that the Cancer Institute Adult Outpatient Center at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is available to serve them is very rewarding.”

Mary said that she feels welcomed every time she comes for treatment, because the nursing staff always has time to talk with her and make sure she is doing well.

“It’s the most convenient place for the whole community, I believe,” Mary said. “They’ve got such a great staff with Angela (Papadopoulos), Kathy (Weinstein), and now all of the nurses that are coming into the infusion department call it the ‘social hour.’ We’re all in there chitchatting and whatnot. I just love all of those people.”

For more information about the Cancer Institute Adult Outpatient Infusion Center, call (813) 870-4123.

—Follow Jeff Odom on Twitter: @JOdomLaker

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Pasco County commissioners approved an agreement Feb. 5 that settles a dispute over required road improvements in connection with the development of Wiregrass Ranch, a mixed-use project that covers thousands of acres in Wesley Chapel.

County staff and William Merrill, an attorney representing the developers of Wiregrass Ranch, have been working for months to hammer out a settlement agreement.

The completed document spanned hundreds of pages. It calls, in part, for the Porter family, the developers of Wiregrass Ranch, to create roads, provide right-of-way and accommodate transit.

The settlement also reduces or eliminates some of the requirements that were contained in the original development approval and extends project deadlines.

Entitlements for development were also changed.

The new plan calls for a total of 10,472 residential units, a decrease of 343 units from the previous plan. It also calls for approximately 1.26 million square feet of office space, which is a 200,000-square-foot increase. The maximum number of hospital beds has been boosted to 371 hospital beds, an increase of 271.

Other entitlements, which remain the same, are: 300,00 square feet of attraction and recreation space, 480 hotel rooms and 707 community college students.

One element of the agreement calls for developing the project’s town center with short blocks, a mixture of residential and commercial uses, bicycle and pedestrian connections and a grid road network.

Those design elements, which the county calls mixed-use trip reduction measures (MUTRM), will encourage people to use their feet to get around, rather than tooling around behind a steering wheel.

A study by Tindale-Oliver & Associates projects an 11 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled when using this planning approach, said Cynthia Spidell, senior planner and Development of Regional Impact coordinator for the county.

The plan also calls for an elementary school within the town center, prompting Commissioner Kathryn Starkey to suggest the county needs to work more closely with Pasco County Schools to create opportunities for shared use of public projects.

Starkey said the county should approach Pasco Superintendent Kurt Browning to see if the new school’s play areas can be set up to be accessible for public use.

The walkable town center is just one of hundreds of details approved in the settlement between the county and developers.

The county and developer worked out myriad issues regarding the master plan for the Wiregrass project, which is so massive that it is considered to be a development of regional impact.

But the developer’s attorney told commissioners the two sides had not reached an agreement regarding the potential alignment of a planned road to link Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and SR 54.

Maps within the agreement show a road linking the two, and the agreement spells out that the developer must construct a four-lane road, but provide right-of-way for six lanes to allow for future widening.

The developer has agreed to build the road and provide the right-of-way.

But the alignment has not been decided, and the developer wants to know the general area where the road could go so it can sell land that is not within that area, Merrill told commissioners.

Merrill asked commissioners to remove any lines from the map that show a potential alignment and to instead use a red triangle to indicate the area where the road could go through.

County administrator John Gallagher and growth management administrator Richard Gehring warned commissioners about taking any action that might be later construed as an agreement to limit the options for where the road can go.

They said the whole point of making the connection between Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and SR 54 is to divert traffic to the east to decrease the volume at the existing intersection of Bruce B. Downs and SR 54.

That intersection is too close to Interstate 75, and the traffic volume is degrading the effectiveness of the area’s road network, Gehring said. The proposed road is intended to address that problem.

No matter what the map says, however, transportation experts told commissioners the specific alignment will require approval from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) because the new road will connect two state roads.

Starkey called for granting Merrill’s request, noting the Porters will have to disclose to any potential buyers that the specific alignment has not been determined and any alignment would have to be approved by FDOT.

Her motion passed unanimously.

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

When it comes to Pasco County’s economy, it appears better days are ahead, said economics expert William H. Fruth at a Feb. 1 luncheon at the Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club in San Antonio.

“A lot of things have bottomed out, so it looks like it’s not going to get any worse. That’s good news,” said Fruth, president of POLICOM Corporation, an independent economics research firm based in Palm City, which specializes in analyzing local and state economies and economic development.

“The question, of course, is how soon will it get better?” added Fruth, a member of a team working to develop Pasco’s new economic development plan.

The path to economic prosperity is not just a matter of adding jobs or new companies, Fruth told the audience of 200 political, business, education and economic development leaders at the Business Development Week luncheon, organized by the Pasco Economic Development Council (PEDC).

It’s essential to attract the right kinds of companies, the economics expert said. Fruth defines such firms as those not solely dependent on the local economy for their business and which employ large numbers of high-wage workers.

He understands the dynamics of what creates a vibrant economy because he’s evaluated data for more than 700 local economies in the United States and has created more than 200 economic and community studies.

He shared his expertise at the luncheon, offering a condensed primer on how local economies work.

Much like a bucket leaks water when it has a hole in it, every economy drains wealth, Fruth said. So, communities must have companies that will replenish their wealth, he said.

The problem is, there are a limited number of primary industries, and communities across the country are competing to attract or retain them, Fruth said.

To be competitive, communities must have the right mix of conditions as well as government policies and a welcoming attitude, Fruth said.

There are brighter days for Pasco’s job market on the horizon, Fruth predicted.

“It looks like you’re going to have some nice job growth,” he said about this year. He added, “Around 2017, employment levels will reach the levels that were the boom years.”

Pasco workers lag the nation, in terms of average salaries. Fruth said if nothing is done to attract high-wage jobs, that gap will widen.

“Your wage is really down there, and it’s going to take an effort to get it up,” he said.

It’s not enough for Pasco to merely go after companies that have a large number of jobs, Fruth said.

“The great myth is creating any kind of new job will help the economy,” Fruth said.

Low-paying jobs, however, dilute the strength of an economy and can contribute to a downward spiral, he said.

“It is projected that your wage in this county, by 2025, will drop down to 61 percent of the national average,” Fruth said, based on his projections. “There’s no reason to suggest that this will not occur if you do nothing about it.”

By attracting companies that offer high-paying jobs, the salary situation improves for workers on every rung of the pay-scale ladder, Fruth added. Employees in the $55,000 range compete for jobs paying $65,000, and employees in the $45,000 range compete for jobs in the $55,000 range and so on, he explained.

“When we talk about the quality of the economy, we talk about what people earn. I don’t make any apologies for that. There’s nothing more important than money, than for what money is intended,” Fruth said.

Money makes it possible to purchase better housing, better clothing, better food, more secure retirement, better healthcare and more vacation, he said.

When companies are choosing a location, they consider a broad range of issues, including utility costs, taxes, regulations and other factors, Fruth said.

“The community selection process, at the beginning, is a community elimination process,” Fruth said.

For instance, electric costs can range from 15 cents to 4 cents a kilowatt hour, he said. So, “if you use a lot of electricity, where are you going to go?”

The availability of land ready for development is a huge issue, Fruth said. Being ready for build means that the site has the proper zoning, is served by roads, water, sewer and electric utilities, and can be quickly permitted, Fruth said.

The speed of permitting is important because if it takes too long, companies will go elsewhere, he said.

Having available land is a fundamental requirement, Fruth said. If an area reaches build-out, there’s no room for existing companies to expand or new companies to move in or start up.

Pinellas County already lacks land for existing companies to expand, and Hillsborough County has a shortage of industrial real estate, he said.

“This is where you come, understanding Pinellas doesn’t have any industrial property, understanding that Hillsborough is running out of it,” Fruth said. “Pasco County needs to become the catcher’s mitt, for your existing high-wage employers in the region, when they need new facilities and when they have to expand.”

 

To learn more about how local economies work, visit www.policom.com and click on a link called The Flow of Money.

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Hillsborough County is amping up its communication efforts regarding trees in the median of US 41, which runs through Lutz.

Residents turned out in force to a Jan. 24 meeting to raise objections when it appeared that the county would be cutting down dozens of trees in the median without any prior discussions with residents.

At that meeting, representatives from the county pledged to improve communications and work with residents to find solutions.

The county has followed through on that pledge. It has set up a website focusing on that issue.

It also recently sent out an electronic newsletter to those who signed in at the community meeting.

The website is intended to keep people in the loop on the issue, and the newsletter addresses questions raised during the community forum.

“This newsletter is written to respond to the questions and concerns raised at that meeting in an effort to provide answers to and strengthen our relationship with the Lutz community,” the newsletter states.

“Specifically, Hillsborough County staff, FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) and community representatives have agreed to work together to find ways to provide continued enhanced landscape maintenance for the medians that were the subject of our meeting.

“Until solutions are found, no trees or vegetation will be removed,” the newsletter states.

Lutz resident Donald Hassinger said increasing communications is a good move.

“We weren’t informed. Those trees were coming down,” Hassinger said, but he and others raised objections and the county opted to have the community meeting instead.

Mike White, founder and president of the Lutz Citizen Coalition, criticized county officials for failing to communicate with residents. He also stated that residents do not trust the county.

White had not seen the electronic newsletter, but said he welcomes an increase in communications.

The newsletter the county sent out provides questions and answers based on queries posed at the community meeting.

An excerpt of that Q & A is presented here:

Q. Why are trees in the US Hwy. 41 medians proposed to be cut?

A. As a condition of the maintenance agreement with FDOT to maintain the right-of-way next to US 41, Hillsborough County is contractually obligated to maintain the trees and groundcover in accordance with FDOT specifications.

In the absence of a third party landscape maintenance provider, Hillsborough County initiated the process of returning the right-of-way maintenance back to FDOT. In order to do this, FDOT directed Hillsborough County to remove some of the trees, groundcover and vegetation.

Q. How many trees are proposed for removal?

A. Of the 135 trees within the maintenance area, 91 are designated for removal, including 64 crape myrtle, 14 wax myrtle, seven live oaks, three Shumard oaks and three red

maple.

Q. Why were some trees designated for removal on US 41 and others not? Was it based on location?

A. To transfer the median landscaping back to the FDOT, Hillsborough County was directed to remove designated trees based on long-term maintenance needs and state safety criteria. Removal designation was based solely on type of tree material and condition, not location.

Q. How do we know what trees are proposed to be removed?

A. Trees marked with orange spray paint are designated for removal if the medians are transferred back the FDOT. Trees with colored ribbon will remain.

Q. How much maintenance is required for the crape myrtles?

A. Maintenance for crape myrtles typically includes trimming of trunk suckers and their canopy. This generally consists of keeping a clear area eight feet from the median to the bottom of any tree canopy.

To maintain the trees in accordance with state safety criteria, records indicate an annual cost of approximately $15,000.

The newsletter also addresses a question posed by Jan Smith, who has been active in Lutz issues for decades. She wanted to know who selected the trees that were placed in the median.

County records suggest the trees were installed during the widening of US 41 in the 1990s and were paid for through FDOT’s landscape reimbursement program. The trees planted were selected by FDOT, the county and Lutz residents, the newsletter states.

The newsletter also notes that the county never intended to pay for maintenance of the medians, but instead planned to rely on a third party to complete the work.

That never materialized, and the county historically has spent about $15,000 for tree maintenance and a third party has provided mowing at no cost to the county.

Speakers at the community meeting also wanted to know if a partnership could be created with FDOT to close off lanes so volunteers could maintain the landscape.

The county has pledged to explore all options and plans to discuss them at the next public meeting in mid-March.

For more information, visit www.hillsboroughcounty.org/us41medians/.

Benefit concert planned

The Center for the Arts at Wesley Chapel will present a special benefit concert featuring Phil Dirt and the Dozers to benefit the center’s educational programs.

The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 23. Tickets are $20 each, with special pricing for groups. Call the box office at (813) 794-8772 to order tickets or for additional information.

 

Bishop McLaughlin open house

Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High is hosting an admissions open house from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 28 for seventh- and eighth-graders at, 13651 Hays Road in Spring Hill.

Those attending will have a chance to meet the school’s faculty and learn about financial aid and transportation.

Additional information is available by visiting www.bmchs.com or by calling Kathy Hinton-Scott, director of admissions, at (727) 857-2600 ext. 244.

 

Oakstead Elementary spring sprint

Oakstead Elementary is hosting its third annual Spring Sprint for a Healthier Generation on March 16. The 5K starts at 7:30 a.m., followed by the 1-mile at 8:15 a.m.

Participants of all ages are welcome, and awards will be given in categories beginning for children less than age 5 through adults older than age 60.

The event encourages families, as well as office workers, to get out and exercise together.

The packet pickup is March 15 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Oakstead, 19925 Lake Patience Road in Land O’ Lakes. On race day, the packet pickup begins at 6 a.m. at Rasmussen College, 18600 Fernview St. in Land O’ Lakes. Early bird pricing is available. To find out more, visit https://sites.google.com/site/oaksteadspringsprint/.

 

Seeking nominees for youth award

The Hillsborough County Commission is seeking nominees through Feb. 28 for its Youth Excellence and Achievement Awards (YEA! Awards).

Awards nominations can be submitted for both middle and high school students in each of the following categories:

—Leadership – demonstrating positive impact on others in an ongoing endeavor, such as sports, academics and the arts

—Success despite difficult odds – overcoming tremendous personal difficulty to attain success and have a positive impact on others

—Volunteer or community service – allocating their discretionary time to helping others or completing a project that has added to the betterment of the community

The awards will be presented at a county commission meeting in the spring.

For additional information on the YEA! Awards, call (813) 274-6787.

 

Hillsborough schools get federal grant

The Hillsborough County public school district has received a $500,000 federal grant for a school-based health center. The grant was authorized under the Affordable Care Act and will allow the school district to construct a health center to provide services to children from economically distressed families living around the University of South Florida.

 

Saint Leo’s new business Affairs VP

Jeanne T. Plecenik has joined Saint Leo University as its vice president of business affairs. In her new role, she oversees finance, risk management, regulatory issues, human resources, technology services and facilities operations.

Before joining Saint Leo, she was vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

She currently is a doctoral candidate in finance and accounting at Pace University in New York City.

 

Moore Mickens’ students of the month

The Moore Mickens Education Center announced the students of the month for December: Abbie Musgrove, Jesse Malone, Ashley Nottingham and Maria Rosales.

These students were honored on Jan. 24 for achieving a 4.0 grade point average (GPA): Kelly Butterfield, Dustin Chancey, Mark Jordan, Edward Lombardi, Abbie Musgrove, Steven Reid, Jacob Stanley and Celeste Toj Yat.

These students were honored for achieving a 3.2 GPA or better: Tyler Bedell, Gilberto Bonew-Davila, Shay Cook, Ricky Costner, Amber Denney, Tyler Dennis, David Graves, Cassie Greene, Laelah Haynes, Ivan Hernandez, Dylan Hodock, Rachael Kolaric, Tabitha Lee, Wanice Matthews, Jose Mendoza, Jarrett Mobelini, Kristi Morris, George Newkirk, Jasmine Oquendo, Samantha Petersen, Donald Pitts, Sabrina Remick, Ingrid Rodriguez, Oswaldo Rodriguez, Joshua Taylor, Richard Thomas, Kaitlyn Thompson, Kate-Lyn Traver and Angelica Tull.

 

Odessa student makes achievement list

Jason Getreu, of Odessa, made the fall 2012 Academic Achievement List at Georgia Southwestern State University and was among 445 students recognized for scholastic success. To be eligible, a student must previously earn at least 15 credit hours, be enrolled in three to 14 hours of courses and earn a 3.5 or higher grade point average.

 

Lutz resident achieves dean’s list

Jaime Maier, of Lutz, earned a spot on the Loyola Marymount University Dean’s List for the fall 2012 semester. Students named to the dean’s list have completed 15 semester hours and earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or better. Additionally, a student must have completed all of his or her courses and never received an F in any course.

 

Hillsborough Choice applications

The Hillsborough Choice application period for elementary schools closes February 14. Applications are available online at http://choice.mysdhc.org.

 

Upcoming MOSI events

The Home School Inventor Fair will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI). Prizes will be awarded. For more information, visit www.campfun.org.

The MOSI Robo Club will meet from 10 a.m. until noon on Feb. 23. This program, which is geared for children ages 9 through 14, gives kids a chance to work with electronics, build with parts and program robots to solve exciting challenges. Preregistration is requested. For more information, call (813) 987-6000.

The MOSI Game Designers Club will meet from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Feb. 23. Video game enthusiasts join the MOSI Game Designers Club. The club, designed for kids ages 11 through 17, provides a chance to learn about the latest gaming technologies and upcoming gaming releases. Preregistration is requested. For more information, call (813) 987-6000.